The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 407
Miss Charlotte R. Williams
Date
Miss Charlotte R. Williams dates from 1892. 1
Charlotte Carter Ritchie Williams (1861-1920) of Baltimore (later Mrs Walter Prescott Smith) sat to Whistler for a lithograph, Portrait Study: Miss Charlotte R. Williams c058, in 1892, and the oil portrait probably dates from the same period.
On 23 November 1892 George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) noted in his diary: 'Wrote Miss Charlotte Williams about her Whistler portrait'. After Whistler's death, Lucas noted on 18 September 1903 that he had written to 'FF [Frank Frick] 5a Cork Street; London, to see about Miss Williams Whistler portrait.' 2 Both references could concern arrangements to commission and trace either a lithograph or painting.
According to the Pennells, the oil portrait was painted in 1894, was not paid for, and never completed; this date is incorrect, although the rest of the information may be correct. 3
Images
Miss Charlotte R. Williams, Whereabouts unknown
Portrait Study: Miss Charlotte R. Williams, lithograph
Subject
Titles
Only one title has been suggested:
- 'Miss Charlotte R. Williams' (1980, YMSM). 4
Description
The sitter described it as a 'full length in miniature size' :
'I wore a grey dress, silver slippers with tiny pink bows - I am seated on a sofa, my wrap over the end & my arm resting on the collar or near it. The collar is fur & the coat lining rose. Near my hand on the sofa is a bunch or boquet [sic] of violets. My hair is rolled off my face as always & you will recognize the likeness to Lizzie.' 5
Sitter
Portrait Study: Miss Charlotte R. Williams, lithograph
Charlotte Carter Ritchie Williams (1861-1920) of Baltimore was the daughter of George Hawkins Williams (1818-1889) and Eleanor Addison Gittings (1824-1881). She sat to Whistler for a lithograph, Portrait Study: Miss Charlotte R. Williams c058 in 1893, and the oil portrait may date from then. 6 She married the physician Walter Prescott Smith (1868-1902) and their son, Alan Prescott Smith, was born in 1896.
Technique
Technique
Unknown.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
Unknown.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 407), plate 424, as 'Miss Charlotte R. Williams'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- None.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, p. 157.
- Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998 (lithograph, cat. no. 58).
Books, General
- Randall, Lillian (ed.), George A. Lucas: An American Art Agent in Paris, 1857-1909, Princeton, 1979, pp. 756, 921.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- None.
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- None.
Unpublished
- Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 199).
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: 'Probably painted 1893/4' according to YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 407).
2: Randall 1979 [more], pp. 756, 921.
3: Pennell 1908 [more], vol. 2, p. 157.
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 407).
5: The sitter, Charlotte R. Smith to Thomas Chatard, her brother-in-law, 4 October 1903, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress.
6: Spink 1998 [more] (cat. no. 58).